Running with purpose: Riverhead Town official uses daily runs to help others

Mike Zaleski loves to run.

It’s a passion he didn’t even know he had until two years ago when he laced up his running shoes and hit the road in the hope it would relieve stress in his life at the time.

“I had a rough go there for a while,” he said of personal circumstances that inspired him to find a healthy escape.

Zaleski said he would go to the gym to work out a little, but was never much of a runner. When COVID struck and the gyms closed down, he decided to exercise outdoors to keep fit. And so he started running.

People would honk and wave at him as he ran, he said. And that inspired him to keep going — he runs every day — and to run longer distances.

“It’s inspiring to have a purpose,” he said. So he set goals for himself. “I’m going to try to run two miles now,” he’d say to himself. “I’m going to try to run three. And if I run three, I’m going to donate to this or that organization. It was my own self-motivation and next thing you, know I’m running three, six, nine, 10 miles,” he said. “I do I run at least three miles a day. I run around 900 miles a year.”

He laughs at the suggestion that he’s like Riverhead’s own Forrest Gump. “I’ve seen that movie,” he said. “Believe it or not, that’s my mindset.”

Last April, at the height of the first coronavirus surge, Zaleski ran to show support for health care workers. Shortly after, he decided to run as a food drive for two local churches. He got more donations than he expected, he said.

“In my mind, you have to do good to feel good,” Zaleski said. “And it was making me feel good.”

Then he did a fundraiser for Riverhead CAP. “I raised $2,200 for them,” he said.

And Zaleski just kept running. He posts about his daily runs on his Facebook page.

Since he embarked upon his runner’s journey, Zaleski took up a different kind of running — running for elective office. Deputy superintendent of the Riverhead Highway Department since 2016, Zaleski decided to toss his hat in the ring for the superintendent’s post when Superintendent George Woodson announced he would retire at the end of this year. Zaleski, a veteran highway department employee, was elected by a wide margin in November and will take office Jan. 1.

He said he runs along a different route every day and uses the run to observe and make note of road conditions.

Having purpose while he runs helps motivate him, he said. Sometimes he runs just to bring awareness to something. Other times he runs for an intention — keeping in mind someone he knows who is going through a difficult time, for example. And other times, he runs to raise money for someone who needs some help.

“Someone might lose a family member or a loved one or pet and I’ll dedicate a 5K to them,” Zaleski said.

“I always wanted to do something around the holidays,” he said. “So in my mind, I’m like, ‘You know what, let me try a toy drive.’” He reached out again to his friends on Facebook.

And hit the road.

“I have a lot of good friends,” he said, “and a lot of people like supporting my cause. And that’s good. So I did this toy drive for all the needy children locally,” Zaleski said.

He contacted the school district. And on Monday afternoon, he delivered a truckload full of toys to Roanoke Avenue Elementary School.

For Zaleski, running is all about positivity. “There’s so much bad going on in this world,” he said. “But good always outweighs evil. It really does.”